Pin And Sleeve

[Falcon86]

Mike,

I am working at an army post in New Mexico and we have a lot of portable trucks and equipment that we plug in outdoors.
Our service power at the post is (120/208 3 phase) (Y).
I am being told to install four pin & sleeve type devices, not five pin type.
This four pin device as I understand them is three hot conductors L1, L2, L3,
and a ground. (no neutral)
Whereas the five pin device are L1, L2, L3, ground and a neutral.
I need help to clarify this and any publications you can recommend to me.

Thank you, 08/18/09
Tom Schreck

 

[Rick Christopherson]

Your service is 5-wire 120/208, but that does not mean that your trucks and equipment are 5-wire. If these loads are 208-delta (with no phase-to-neutral loads), then no, you do not need to carry the neutral to them. However, if these loads do in fact have phase-to-neutral loads (120/208), then yes, you do need to use 5-wire P&S devices.

 

[hillbilly1]

Being a military application, the exsisting plugs may be non-grounding, designed to work with the military portable generators, some of our military or ex-military posters may know the answer to this question.

 

[partyman973]

I have been in the military 22 years now, some active, mostly guard. All of our shelters are grounded through the plugs and cables. In addition it is a requirement to drive 3 ground rods at each shelter in a diamond configuration, tie this to the external groung lug on the shelter and also pull a groung cable from the diamond back to a central ground system located at the generator farm. I can't speak for all branches, I am Air Force, and I can't speak for all units, but I have been in several different units and this seems to be the standard.

 

[Falcon86]

Thanks for your info,
Yes these loads do have phase-to-neutral loads (120/208).
So if I am understanding this then it would be unsafe and/or improper to use a four pin &
sleeve regardless.
Tom Schreck

 

[Bigrig]

Is it possible the connector type is grounded through part of the shell, not by a pin? I believe Hubbell Insulgrip Style 1 devices do just that. A-B-C-Neutral with ground built into the connector.

 

[cadpoint]

On the front page of the hosts web page, on the left side,
"Technical",
"Grounding verses Bonding"
there is a free Grounding and Bonding-Department of U.S. Army (Febr. 2002)
Size is about 3.8MB
This is 183 pages full of electrical applications, new or old facilities, forms and
inspections
It was written for:

Grounding and Bonding in Command, Control, Communications, Computer,
Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (C4ISR) Facilities.

Now I realize that this is not exactly what your asking for but the references start at page 158, maybe one of your requirements might be listed there.

Like some of these:

DOD Instruction 6055.11
Protection of DoD Personnel from Exposure to Radiofrequency Radiation
[Cited in paragraph 4-3c(8)]

MIL-STD-188-124B
Grounding, Bonding and Shielding for Common Long Haul/Tactical Communication Systems
Including Ground Based Communications-Electronics Facilities and Equipment
[Cited in paragraph 3-3c(2), 3-5c(1)(g), 6-2b(4)(a), 6-4a(3)]

MIL-HDBK-232A
Red/Black Engineering-Installation Guidelines
[Cited in paragraph 4-3e]

MIL-HDBK-419A
Grounding, Bonding, and Shielding for Electronic Equipment and Facilities
[Cited in paragraph 3-2j(8)]

Enjoy

 

[cadpoint]

You can also go to www.defense.gov you can isolate off this page to US Army also.

From the first main page, Type in the search "electrical manuals" and you'll get something like this Here